D.O.A. - An Unstoppable Force

No one has played punk rock longer than D.O.A. Formed in
Burnaby, British Columbia, in 1978, the band is still going
strong and hasn't mellowed in the slightest. Their latest
album, The Black Spot, is one of their hardest--and
best--ever, featuring songs such as "Blind Men" (a rant
about skinheads) and "Marijuana Motherfucker" (sample lyric:
"I like marijuana, you like marijuana/We like marijuana
too").

D.O.A., "Marijuana Motherfucker" (live), 1:37

The D.O.A. convoy--singer/guitarist Joe Keithley, guitarist
Ford Pier, bassist Brian Goble, and drummer Brien O'Brien--
rolled into Seattle on Wednesday night, when they opened for
NoMeansNo at the all-ages Pioneer Square Theater. I spoke
with D.O.A. frontman Keithley before the show about
politics, touring the world, and what it means to be punk
rock in the 90's.

ATN: You've been involved in social causes from A to Z
throughout your career. I've heard lately that you're
running for office. Is this true?

Keithley: Yeah with the Green Party.

ATN: For what position?

Keithley: For an MLA, which is the same as a state
congressperson down here. It's a provincial position,
stands for Member of the Legislative Assembly.

ATN: What are your issues?

Keithley: About three main ones. Basically, one, we're
trying to get a freeze on any greenspace left in Burnaby.
Having grown up there, I've seen it change so much, so what
I'm trying to do is not get any more of the green stuff
hacked down. Vancouver's growing the same way Seattle is.
It's almost as big, and it's growing just as fast. Burnaby
is one of the main transportation corridors in the Vancouver
area, and we need trees to keep the air clean from the
carbon monoxide and diesel from the trucks and all.

This ties in with my second issue, which is transportation.
There's absolutely no transportation planning in greater
Vancouver. They came up with a five-year plan, but we don't
need a five-year plan--we need a fifty-year plan. It's
really hard to predict fifty years ahead. A lot of things
can change, but one thing that won't change is how much
greenspace is disappearing, so rather than put more emphasis
on the automobile and more highways, which is what's
happening, we should be putting more emphasis on local
transportation. Iim suggesting more bus routes, more rapid
transit in the way of electric trains, and a system of
minivans that would make a specialty of giving women and
elderly people rides home to and from their door so people
aren't in danger from hooligans or idiots.

Finally, everyone's future is going to depend on education.
So I say no tuition fees for people--you go to school for
free. The Premier got a big cheer because he froze tuition
fees. We're saying "no tuition fees." Unless it's proven
that you come from some astronomically rich family.

ATN: How would you compare Canadian politics with American?
Do you think it's more progressive in Canada?

Keithley: Yeah, a little bit. It's not as knee-jerk. We
don't have a guy like Rush Limbaugh or Pat Buchanan. We're
known more as compromisers, whereas I think Americans are
known for "How the West was won"--with a gun, right? Not
that Canadians didn't do their fair share of screwing over
native people who preceded them, but it wasn't quite the
genocide and bloodshed as when the West was settled. Of
course, people in Washington, DC, always think of Canada as
a branch plant of the United States, which is one of the
things I really hate. The last thing we should be trying to
do in Canada is trying to become more like Americans. We
should not have proliferation of guns; we should try to
protect our health-care system and our education system.

ATN: What do you say to critics who say that music and
politics don't mix?

Keithley: Music is an artistic endeavor. Vaclav Havel,
president of the Czech Republic, was a playwright. That's
interesting that people there, coming from a history of 47
years of being totally oppressed under the Soviet system,
it's a real expression of freedom that they would pick
somebody from an artistic endeavor to have enough vision to
lead them. I guess if an actor can be president of the
United States, then a musician can be a cultural politician.

ATN: Letis switch gears and talk a little more about music.
What do you think of the so-called punk revival?

Keithley: I think it's funny--in one sense, it obviously
involves a whole lot of commercialism, same way as hippie
music and the alternative culture of the late sixties and
early seventies got completely capitalized. The end result
of that musical revolution was a lot of people selling a lot
of bell bottoms and belt buckles with peace signs on them.
This one is an awful lot of--well, I wish I'd gotten into
the hair-dye business. A lot of money there.

Then again, that's focusing on the negative. A lot of it is
complete style over substance. On the positive side,
though, the good things about punk rock that never died,
that you can't take away no matter how much you try to sell
them and co-opt them is that spirit of rebellion and the do-
it-yourself thing. Those were the two key things that made
it worthwhile in the first place. Obviously a big side of
it when it first started was the nihilistic side, Sid
Vicious being the king of that. Hey, the Sex Pistols are on
a comeback, right?

ATN: Um, sure.

Keithley: I'll go see it--I think it would be funny as
hell, right? Never Mind the Bollocks is one of the
five greatest albums ever made, I think. I couldn't name
the other four, but I'll just throw it out as an arbitrary
figure.

So I think it's okay. You can go play more places. But
then again--there was this Green Party benefit we were
playing up in suburban Vancouver, and these people were kind
of dressed like punk rockers, and we were playing "Fuck
You," which is a well-known song for us. They just sort of
walked by and nodded their heads and walked out, but didn't
stay to listen. So Ford hopped off the stage and went to
the glass door and was singing "fuck you" after them as
they left.

ATN: How do you like being on tour?

Keithley: I think it's pretty fun. That's one of the
reasons I do it. You have to enjoy doing it, because it
would be insane if you didn't.

ATN: I've talked to a lot of people who hate it.

Keithley: I suppose a musician always has an idea--well for
one thing, they have to get enough money to eat, they have
to survive, and if you donit know anything else, you go play
your guitar or whatever. And people always hold onto the
possibility that maybe things will start getting better.
We're kind of cruising along on an even keel. We'll see how
we do with this new record.

ATN: I know there was a lot going on during the making of
that record--

Keithley: Yeah, well, it was really weird because Ken
Jensen [D.O.A.is drummer] died in a fire, and it was so
totally fucked because he was the nicest of young guys. He
was full of enthusiasm and his drumming was getting better
all the time. And I've worked with a lot of musicians who
had good sides but also had dislikable angles, and Ken
didn't have that. He was--mellow's not the right word, but
easygoing. So we kind of recovered from that and finally
came out with this record.

ATN: How do you think this record measures up to the rest
of your catalog?

Keithley: Pretty good. I think that in the last ten years
the best records we've made are this one... 13 Flavors of
Doom was pretty good; True North was a decent
record. We made some really medium albums too. I guess
that's the thing about D.O.A., usually we've got a good
reputation live, but we've been a bit spotty with records.

ATN: What are some of your favorites on the new album?

Keithley: I like 'em all, go buy it, it's available at--
well, I really like "Paying For Your Body." Ken had
written this song. Jensen wrote a couple songs, and they
were too weird, sort of not for D.O.A. I guess he got sort
of pissed off because Brian and I made fun of him. So then
he came up and says, "Listen to this, you guys gotta like
this," and he played it and I said yep, it sounds about
like three old D.O.A. songs rolled in together from the
early 80's, but I can't figure out which ones. Then Ford
came up with the lyrics, so I really like that one--that's a
nice tribute to Ken.

ATN: What's ahead for D.O.A.? Is there an end in sight?

Keithley: No, I think we'll go for quite a while. People
probably have a hard time believe that, since we've been
going for 18 years, I guess. We'll just play it by ear.
We're doing a lot of touring this year, and we'll probably
get on with another record early on next year. I guess
weill just play it until either we hate it or people donit
care anymore. Thatis all you can do, I think.